1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to packet data networks. In particular, the present invention relates to a novel and improved system, and network entities for configuration management of a dynamic host configuration protocol framework comprising at least one DHCP server, at least one configuration storage and at least one storage manager and at least one network server, wherein a configuration storage is connected to at least one DHCP server, a configuration storage is connected to at least one DHCP server and a storage manager is connected to at least one configuration storage and to at least one network server.
2. Description of the Related Art
The DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a communication protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses e.g. in an organization's network. Using the Internet Protocol, each machine that can connect to the Internet needs a unique IP address. When an organization sets up its computer users with a connection to the Internet, an IP address must be assigned to each machine. Without the DHCP, in IPv4 the IP address must be entered manually in each computer and, if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IP address must be entered. IPv6 provides a stateless address autoconfiguration functionality (Neighborhood Discovery protocol, ND) that can replace the address assignment functionality of the DHCPv6. In other words, in the IPv6, manual address configuration is not the only option if the DHCPv6 is not used. The DHCPv6 is an example of a statefull address auto-configuration method for the IPv6. Furthermore, some proprietary method can also be used to configure IP addresses.
The DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and distribute IP addresses from a central point and automatically sends a new IP address when a computer is plugged into a different place in the network. This is always done in a solicited manner, that is, a computer must explicitly request the network to assign a new address for it.
DHCP server configuration management is typically based on manual configuration of a configuration file, which easily can lead to outdated information being provided to the DHCP clients. FIG. 1 describes a typical prior art solution. A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server 10 includes a configuration file 12. Configuration file 12 includes configuration parameters, e.g. assignable IP addresses, so that DHCP server 10 is able to provide services to terminal devices. A user may edit configuration file 12 via a user interface 14.
The configuration file is interpreted by server process in its initializing phase (start/restart). Each time when a change is needed in the server configuration the configuration file or other data storage is manually edited, and to make the changes apply in server process, required procedures are executed, e.g. by restarting the server process.
Manual configuration involves (human) administrator interaction and there is always a possibility of a human error when maintaining manually configuration data. Moreover, it may be a time consuming task and it is not suitable for delivering configuration parameters that have a short lifetime or require frequent updates. Automated or semi-automated generation of configuration parameters may be supported in a network server to decrease extra burden of manual configuration.
Delivering configuration data to the end-user equipment from a network, in a user-friendly manner, is nowadays a problem especially for the mobile terminal vendors. In the future, when the networks are mobile (moving networks), this problem becomes even bigger.
If a network operator has contracts with multiple service and content providers as well as with multiple terminal vendors, there is no generic way in which all those parties may dynamically provide required configuration data for the use of the operator. This has to be done because the operator owns presumably the configuration framework of its network like DHCP framework.
Based on the above, there is an obvious need for a solution that would improve DHCP framework configuration management.